It's only Day 1 of spring practices, but the Wisconsin offense clearly has a long ways to go yet. The day certainly belonged to the defense, as the offense struggled to take care of the ball.
After the Badgers' first practice this spring, head coach Luke Fickell said that there a lot of things to clean up on offense moving forward.
"I wouldn't say today was controlled," said Fickell. "(It was) day one, so there's always a little greater emotion. But there's a lot of things we can learn from. Defensively, did a great job at going after the football, punching the ball. Offensively, we've got to take care of it. There were way too many times the ball was on the ground, the ball was in harm's way if you're an offense. Defensively, it can be a good thing. A lot of things to correct up and move forward with."
The Wisconsin offense was well behind the defense on Day 1
It's not too surprising to hear that the first practice was a bit rough around the edges, so there shouldn't be any alarm bells going off. The Badgers are rolling with a new transfer quarterback this season in Colton Joseph, so there will certainly be an adjustment period for both him and the coaching staff. Still, Fickell was obviously not thrilled with how the offense performed, and admitted there's a lot of things to work on.
While Joseph is a dynamic dual-threat quarterback, accuracy has never been one of his better attributes. He has back-to-back seasons of sub-60 percent completion percentage, and it's already clear that it will need to improve with the Badgers. Still, he rushed for over 1,000 yards last year with Old Dominion, so there's a lot to work with for Fickell and company.
The Badgers are looking to rebound after another disappointing season under Fickell. There's still plenty of time for the offense to catch up, but they'll to start stacking some good days in spring soon.